An Alliance from Destruction
by SocietE
Summary: Pilots were never meant to be unleashed upon other species. Neither were Titans. Fate, however, may have completely different ideas. Rating M just to be safe for the future.
1. A flash of Past and Future

**Authors Note: I don't own anything of what I write here.**

 **Okay, if you have any questions, the second chapter will begin with a timeline for how things went. Because this _IS_ quite some years after Titanfall 2. Also, this chapter will have only one mention of Mass Effect, and even that is really subtle.**

 **And remember, any feedback is appreciated.**

 **Edit: some slight grammar corrections, and the -This- dialogue format was replaced "This". Nothing else.**

* * *

John woke up on the the New Frontiers. He was lying on the floor of hangar three, but it looked trashed. The dropships were flipped over, and the atmospheric fighters were all over the place. He got on his knees, and looked around, trying to find a specific Bear Transport, with a black paint.

There were fires, and the ceiling collapsed in one place. Sheppard also saw a Titan in the hangar, trying to flip back the ships. The walls were dented, and the logo of the 6-4 was scratched so much, he wouldn't have recognized it, if he didn't know what to look for.

He tried to stand up, but he was too dizzy and disoriented to do that, and fell, when he tried to do it anyway. He felt a dull ache in his left leg, and looked at it. It was pierced by a long metal shard, which probably came from one of the wrecks. Now that he knew it was there, it hurt a lot more. He tried to shout for help, but he was too weak to do anything. Furthermore, he was too tired to do anything.

The darkness slowly took over him.

* * *

Sheppard and his team was standing in one of the goblins, which took off from the New Frontiers in the first wave. Their section commander came back from the front of the craft, and gave a quick report.

"Alright, people, we have some pirates here. Probably the leftovers of the Marauders." Everyone paid more attention after that point. The Marauders were the people, who joined the Militia back then, because that was the easy way to get away with murder and stealing. They were called Marauders, because many of the came from the now disbanded Marauder Corps. Thus, they had top training, top equipment, and clever people. "We are dropping you off near a small smuggler settlement, so you should have a safe landing, but keep your eyes open. And again, the objective is the capture of Johnathan Kiora, the presumed leader of the Marauders, but a kill is also accepted." He pulled a lever, and the ramp behind him opened. "And be careful, you know how much Gates likes to write death reports. Now go."

Sheppard looked at Ashley with a questioning look, and the girl just smiled back, and ran out of the ship. Sheppard followed closely, and hit the ground then activated his suits combat functions.

"Okay, Sheppard, where now?" Asked Kaiden, who just landed behind them.

"Kiora's last known location is an underground shelter left behind from the Titan Wars." Sheppard answered, as he checked his smart pistol.

"That idiot escaped into a bunker built 50 years ago? I thought he was a good tactician." Came the words of confidence from Otto.

"Now is not the time to talk about that." Ashley warned the guys. "We need to go, before we're..." She was probably about to say something about the guys arguing, but she was cut off by the sound of the dropship smashing into the ground.

Sheppard looked around, looking for the weapon, which might have shot down their ride. He found no such, so there were two possibilities. Either it came from long range, which means they can be targeted anytime, if they are in the open, or it came from an orbiting ship. Neither of these two were good. Artillery meant wrong intel, but bombardment meant having lost the battle up above. Sheppard jumped inside a building and told his team to do so as well. He checked his HUD, but saw only four of the original friendly tags, marking his team.

"Dammit, who is here?"

"Present, but I saw the ship fall on the building, where Henry went to provide cover." Reported Ashley. Great, so they lost their marksman. Not like the others had bad aim. Most Pilots could hit a dime from a hundred meters with a pistol. But henry took it one step further. Sheppard saw what the man was capable of, and he was impressed. A normal marksman Pilot can hit the same dime, from the same distance, while wall-running, and the dime is falling. And Henry could double on that.

"I'm also here, and Kaiden is in the next room trying to patch himself, though it isn't anything serious." That was the life of a pilot. If you're hurt, it either heals quick, or kills you (Unless it's limb loss. That's shit to deal with). The medical nanites in their body made sure to heal anything, they can, but the brain is simply too complicated, so it's still irreparable. The nanites' ability to replicate stem cells and transport them to the damaged area saved countless lives. What Ingram said also had another meaning. The only name, which has not been mentioned yet was Otto, so he was gone as well.

"Okay, we'll keep going. Let's say the intel was right, so we have to get to the bunker before they can evacuate. Kaiden," He turned to the man who just came into the room. "you okay?"

"Yes, sir. Just some bruises."

"Good, because you'll take over the marksman role. You got the training, right?" To which Sheppard only received a nod.

* * *

He woke up laying next to a wall. He was alright, but still a bit dizzy. He stood, up and tried to place the corridor in the ship. It must have been still near the hangars, as the engineers' and mechanics' logos were all around the place. It was probably close to hangar three, as well, because there were other wounded near him. There were some, he could identify. Thompson, the "Maniac", or Ingram for example. He booted his armors HUD, and checked on her. A huge weight was lifted from him, when he realized, she was just knocked out. The next thing he did was check himself. He had a pair of broken ribs, a heavily bruised knee, but he was almost completely healed by now. The bigger problem was the concussion. Still, he had to find the rest of his team.

Each step was a fight itself, but he somehow managed to get back to the hangar. There were a lot of people, carrying either bodies, or rubble. Then he was approached by a figure in white armor. Her armor identified her as Gates.

"Dammit Shep, go and take some rest."

"Ma'am, where is the rest of my squad? I found Ingram, but not the others."

"Yeah, She was knocked out real good. Ashley got out of it with some small scars, but Kaiden is critical. They said, he lost his right limbs, and is generally in a real bad shape." Here Gates looked all over Sheppard again, and continued. "You'll have to explain how you got out with the VIP alive, and in your hands. By the way, he died in the crash. Still it was a... good job."

The voices began to dampen, and he just sort of stood there.

"Sheppard, you there?" Came Gates' voice, but it seemed too distant to care. His sight slowly turned ninety degrees right, and he lost his consciousness again, the moment, he hit the floor.

* * *

"Dammit Kaiden, we need covering fire." Sheppard shouted into his helmet.

There was silence for a couple seconds, during which the team only waited behind cover, then they got an answer.

"Sorry, I was held up by some guys." Here he stopped for a bit. "Sheppard, one had an IMC patch and a suit, I didn't recognize. It had the word ARES on it. You know anything about that?

"Yeah. And it's bad. They were the guys responsible for recovering precursor artifacts. If they're here we need to get Kiora five minutes ago."

The next moment, the little team saw a dozen bullet trails, and got a go from Kaiden. They were still a kilometer from the old bunker, but they didn't see any hard opposition on the path they wanted to take. Kaiden rejoined them, and they proceeded with the mission.

* * *

Sheppard woke up, for the third time. He looked around, only to see Ashley standing next to his bed. She was still in her armor, but her helmet was somewhere else. She held a tablet in her hands, and cursed sometimes.

"What happened?" Was all Sheppard managed to say.

"Short version: We were led into a trap. Long version: The ARES made a deal with the Marauders to protect them. In turn, what remained of them in terms of tech was given to the pirates. We thought they wouldn't see us, when we jump near the planet, but they did. The New Frontiers had to hide behind one of the moons, while reinforcements arrived. It took severe damage, lost a couple engines, Titan bay 3 and 4 is basically gone. The secondary bridge also took a hard hit. Vented before the people inside knew anything. As for the ground part of things, Even I'm not sure, and I was there. Whoever is leading ARES now, must have wanted us to take Kiora. There's no way it was so easy to take him alive."

Johns mind was starting to turn back on, after hearing the story, and he started remembering what happened to him.

* * *

They were inside the bunker for about five minutes now. Two minutes ago they realized they had the wrong schematics. They saw guards. Plenty of them, in fact, and none of them managed to get away. Sheppard was about to let out a loud curse, about why is the base so big, when they found a large sealed metal door.

They looked at each other, Ingram place a couple satchels on the door, and they checked their equipment. Sheppard queried his available gadgets on the HUD, and started reading

STIM: AVAILABLE

PULSE BLADES: 2

HARD COVER: NONE

PHASE SHIFT: ONLINE

HOLO PROJECTORS: ONLINE, AVAILABLE

CLOAK: ONLINE

GRAPPLES: 3

FIRESTARS: 2

GRAV STARS: 1

He started a countdown, which he shared with his squad.

3...

2...

1.

The satchels blew the door, and two pulse blades instantly flew inside. The next thing Sheppard saw was his team darting inside the large circular hall. He held his G2 high and started shooting at the highlighted targets' knees and arms. After all, taking the VIP alive was always a bonus. After a couple seconds the noise settled, and Ashley asked him to come in.

In the middle of the room, was a bloodied figure, kneeling. Sheppard stepped to him and punched him in the face, and the guy blacked out.

"Ingram, please upload the nanite blocker to the port on his neck. Kaiden, Please secure a way out of this place, and find a bird for us. I don't think the New Frontiers can do that at the moment." He was interrupted by the muffled grunt of their new captive.

"Incompetent. You know, how many mistakes you made?"

"Well, says the guy, we captured." Pointed out Ashley, with a satisfied tone.

"I was in a situation, I really should not have been in. I have lost more here, than you think. But you were terrible. You specifically once stopped, and gave some of my men a clear shot on you. Had they not been incompetent, as well, you'd be dead."

"But I'm not!" An angry Ashley shot back.

"Fair point. You did win. Also, I'm not dead yet, so I assume the mission was capture." The man said, as if to sound confident.

"No" Sheppard interrupted, before the man intimidates Ash any further. "We have a capture, or kill. Though, we do get a bonus for you being alive. It's not a large bonus, though, so I'd keep my mouth shut, if I were you." The man seemed to back down, looking surprised. Then, John got a message from Kaiden.

"Alright, I made a clear path. There should be nothing bothering you on your way, Kaiden out."

Sheppard looked at Ashley and told her to go forward, and watch for hostiles. He made their captive stand up, and dragged him along.

Nothing really got in their way, except for a squad of grunts. Ashley took them out before Sheppard could even raise his smart pistol. Sheppard had no idea, why there were no pilots. Was this a trap? Didn't feel like one, or so his guts told him. They came to the surface quickly, and went inside an abandoned residential building. John told Ashley to watch over their guest, and he went outside. He looked around, his G2 in hand. He wanted a vantage point, and the house, they used would actually do rather well, so he jumped onto the wall. He grabbed onto it, ran on the surface, until it became too tilted, then jumped inside a window. Inside, he ran up a stairwell, seeing the abandoned toys of kids in the rooms, he passed through. He finally came out into the shining sun.

The battle was everywhere. This was supposed to be a quick extraction, and now the entire 23rd fleet was engaged in combat. Both in space, and on ground. Dropships made runs for the surface, many getting shot down by turrets. Then he tried reaching his ship.

"Sheppard here. We have the VIP alive. Need extraction. If unavailable, then I request Titanfall."

"This... ew Front... got yo... Stand... Titanfall."

Sheppard looked up at the sky, and tried to make out the stars. The planet they were on had a very active astrologyst community, so there were many named constellations. He put all of them on his HUD, and tried to see what didn't belong there. Then he saw it. A single, bright dot, growing in size.

He felt a stomp in the distance. His friend would come just in time.

Then, there was a large boom. More observant people could notice that it was actually two separate explosions happening at the same time. One was the sound of a Titan touching the ground, the other was the boom of a 40 mil hitting the building Sheppard stood on.

As a result, John was knocked off, and landed in a roll, then stood back up quickly. His Titan stood up, and the Link came on. John now had another pair of eyes. It's not like switching between what he sees. A Pilot sees both at once. His own vision, and their Titan's.

"DT set a particle wall! -John told his Titan."

"I agree, Pilot. Multiple hostiles approaching. You may want to embark." The machine voice came back.

"Nah, not yet. We need to take out at least a couple before we reduce our firepower. Hold on for a sec." He switched channels. "Kaiden, where the hell are you? Me and Ashley are about to be attacked by at least a full squad."

"Sorry, I'm helping Ingram get a ride."

"That's now secondary." A shell hit dangerously close to him. He jumped onto the wall, but quickly leapt onto another, and continued, until he was close enough, then he jumped on a hostile Titan. He knew he'd have to work fast. Ho tore open a battery port, and pulled it out. He tore off the lower section of the battery, and tried to put it back, but before he could perform the final turn, the Titan deployed electric smoke. He had no intention of getting fried, so he jumped off, onto a nearby building. John whipped out his Archer, but held his fire for now. "You get here now. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

Sheppard turned his thoughts back to the battlefield. DT was handling things pretty well, considering everything. There's no way, he can get back on that same Titan again. It will be extra alert. But if DT could get off a shot at its back, it would blow the still exposed battery, and kill it. Yep, that's a plan. He forwarded this to his Titan, which acknowledged it, and kept firing. John knew he would have to draw the attention of it, so DT can take a shot. He grabbed a firestar, and threw it at the Titan. It turned around immediately, to see where it came from. To the surprise of the pilot sitting inside, he blew up the next moment, leaving behind only the legs of the Tone chassis.

"Nice job, DT."

"I already told you too many times, to call me DoT. And there is still much opposition." Said the machine, as it started to shoot again. "Attrition is starting to wear me down, I need more help."

"Okay pal, I'm coming. Kaiden is on the way, as well. He'll be here in a couple minutes." He aimed the Archer again, and mumbled to himself. "Hopefully."

* * *

"But what happened? Who came to save us?" Asked John Ashley, his helmet in hand.

"The 2nd Fleet was nearby." Joined another voice, Admiral Xuen, the leader of the 23rd fleet. "They got our emergency transmissions, and came. It was pretty one-sided after that. I hate to owe Jacob, so I hope getting rid of Kiora was worth it." Here she looked at Sheppard with doubt in her eyes.

"No good news, sir." Ashley cut in. "He was way too easy to capture. We haven't even met Pilots until extraction. At this point he was most likely just a puppet. And if I'm right, the new guys are ARES." Here she paused and looked at Sheppard, expecting him to continue. John saw this, and started talking.

"Admiral, if ARES has access to the Marauders' resources and contacts, they will be a huge problem in a week at best. I have experience with these guys, from Typhon, and I think we would be better off, if the IMC came back instead."

"Commander Sheppard, the IMC was a much more formidable enemy." The Admiral interrupted.

"Yes, but they at least agreed not to blow up planets, and laid out general rules of war." Sheppard said quickly, defending his point.

"Yes...I guess that's true. Anyway, get yourself and your squad together. Come and meet me in my quarters after that, I have orders for your unit."

"Sir, one of my men is still critical. Lost multiple limbs. Last time I heard, he was still on the table. And we are down by two men."

"Well, still. Visit him, and get the rest of you presentable. Sorry, but I took the job in your name."

"No worries, sir. We'll be there."

"Good. Now go and actually rest a bit. That's an order."

John nodded, threw a quick salute, and went to his quarters with Ashley following him. Both were really tired, and worn, so there wasn't much talking. After around ten minutes, they were both in their bunks, sleeping.

John was really tired, but kept dreaming of his past fights with ARES, mostly the ones on Typhon. Not many Pilots managed to get out of there alive. Only the best, and they were heavily decorated after. Especially Cooper. John couldn't help but feell like Coopers victory involved a bit more luck, than skill. Maybe he felt even... Jealous. After waking up from the fourth nightmare, one, he remembered every time, he woke up from it, he decided to just write an after-action report.

It was a strange dream. Didn't feel like one. It was Sheppard flowing near a fold artifact, in space. In the distance, he saw a large star-like construct. It looked beautiful. It resembled, well, a star. It had a large circle in its middle, and there were sun-ray looking arms expanding from that central point. However, it was in a nebula, and a large part of it was obstructed, but if Sheppard saw right, that part appeared to be burning.

This, however only lead to questions, which no one could answer, so just rather went back to writing the report.

* * *

John fired the Archer. And the Titan dodged. Whoever was inside that Ronin, was very skilled. The Vinson Titan Chassis' were starting to become outdated, but said Pilot could still make the Stryder variant dance. Still, without its firends, a Ronin is no match for a Vanguard 3. Most Titans got recharging shields as a refit. Not The Vanguard 3. It was on the plans since the original planning phase.. It had every available ordnance, defense, and utility gadgets installed. And the chassis itself was upgraded as well. If necessary, it can even fly indefinitely, due to it's advanced thrusters. And fly it did. Sheppard saw the Titan gracefully rise, and stop above its opposition. DT then released just about every rocket he had. An unguided rocket salvo flew down right next to a couple of Cluster missiles, supported by a pair of inciendiary traps. In the meanwhile, the XO-24 roared, and spat electrified bullets. It was a sight to see. The enemies tried to scatter, but they were too grouped to do anything. Sheppard counted with joy. One Legion, the annoying Ronin, and a Monarch were instantly destroyed. An Ion, and a Scorch were trying to get away, but still took huge amounts of damage. The Ion lost an arm, and it's precision laser was probably gone as well. The Scorch looked like it had trouble walking, and its hands were full of shrapnel, so he probably won't encounter a thermal shield. Thank the gods for that.

"Pliot, I exhausted my ordnance. Help from friendlies would be highly beneficial."

"Yeah, well... Kaiden is not yet here, so..." He would have continued for sure, but a shot rang out, and DT was knocked back. Sheppard quickly used his Titans vision to find the new opponent, and saw a Northstar. It was reloading its Railgun, and put up a particle wall. Sheppard analyzed the situation, and came to the conclusion that embarking would be his best options. He sprinted hard, and leapt off the building, he was hiding on. While he was mid-air, he got a message from Ashley.

"Heard the booms, need help?"

"Not yet. Kaiden's on the way." He replied as he touched the next building. He ran hard again, and ended it in a slide, which took him off the building. But he did not fall. John found himself in the hands of his Titan, with the hatch open. He jumped in, and the hatch shut close.

The HUD came on, and he linked. This feeling was, how Sheppard imagined a mind-meld. He was the Titan, and the Titan was him. He raised the Titans arms, and activated the gun shield.

The Northstar was back by this time, having reloaded, and it was looking down the barrel of its weapon. Sheppard saw this, and dodged. And again, and again, and again. If they keep it up, Sheppard would have to find cover, to recharge the dodge thrusters. But the Northstar missed the next shot due to Sheppard moving around unexpectedly, and stepped back to reload. The next moment the Northstar took off. And it maneuvered very quickly. Sheppard ran a quick system check to show damaged, or otherwise unavailable systems.

 **TITAN STATUS:**

 **Cluster Missile Racks Empty.**

 **Rocket Racks Empty.**

 **Shields working at 80% max capacity due to damaged emitters.**

 **Sword unequipped.**

 **Major hull damage on lower torso. Repair kit required.**

And indeed, when Sheppard lunged forward, the left leg of the Titan did feel a bit sluggish. He saw the Northstar open one of its missile pods, and aim. DT told him, to watch out, and so John rolled left in the wide street, as the Missile hit a building behind him, the secondary explosions still barely hitting the shields of the Titan. John stood back up quickly, and kept charging toward his target.

When he was about to hit the small chassis, it suddenly raised into the sky, leaving John to slide under it, as he tried to stop. There really was no good counter-action to a VTOL hover, besides blasting your ordnance into the hovering Titan, but that's not something, John could do at the moment, and DT notified him of this.

So John, left without good options, choose something of his own. He did it before. Not with DT, but he did this exact thing before on Typhon.

He turned back to his own vision, and flipped on a couple switches in the cockpit. Then he went back to being the Titan. He shook himself, and launched up into the sky. By this point he was sure, the plan would probably not work, but it was too late to do anything about it.

He flew towards the Northstar, which kept itself in balance. And so, it was likely surprised, when the Vanguard 3 slammed into it. Sheppard knew, he had to get the combat down to the ground, or the Titan would just fly away. To do so, he punched it in the back, as they were chaotically flying around. One giant ball of brawling metal. The punch didn't seem to have much effect, so Sheppard had to get creative.

First, he tried to poke out the core, and when that didn't work due to the shieldings thickness, he changed to instead getting rid of its thrusters. First, he tried to pull them off, but they were just too good of a construction to be ripped off. Then he tried twisting, and turning, but it only changed the direction, in which it was facing.

And that gave the idea. Sheppard suddenly turned two thrusters at the same time towards the chassis of the Northstar. That definitely had an effect. The plating started to melt away, and John could now tear out the two thrusters from their weakened sockets.

The lack of two of its thrusters made the Northstar unfit for flight, and its Pilot must have realized it, as he ejected, leaving the Titan to blow up in Johns face. He wanted none of this, and let go of the abandoned chassis. The explosion still threw him off, but it did not break the shields.

Then John realized, he was still in the air. He balanced the Titan, but by now he was up at least two hundred meters. Wouldn't be a pleasant fall.

The altitude display on the HUD started to drop rapidly, but John managed to fire the thrusters in time. Then, he realized, he wouldn't be able to stop entirely. Now, the Vanguard could even handle a fall from orbit by itself, and still come out unharmed, but when Sheppard let go of the Northstar, they were already going down, and had a considerable amount of speed.

John quickly queried the expected impact velocity, and DT instead just told him to prepare for a hard bump.

 **CRASH.**

John opened his eyes, to see the Titan reboot, from the inside. He quickly went back to the Link, and switched to his Titans eyes. The scorch was on the way to them, just a street away at this point.

John stood back up, and readied the XO-24. His shields were beginning to recharge, although, they stopped at around 40%, meaning many of the emitters were fried. Still, he figured he could take on the Scorch, even in this battered state.

John aimed, and the Scorch came around the corner. John started pouring lead from his machine gun, and shot his flaming opponent with the Vanguards shoulder mounted precision laser. The laser hit the left vent of the large hulking chassis, basically tearing it off.

Just then, John took a thermite canister to his chassis' arm, knocking off his aim. In itself, that wouldn't have been a big problem, but his stray rounds slammed into a tall silo, breaking its supports. The silo started tilting, and Sheppard had to move. By the time he got out of its way, the scorch had already reloaded, and was aiming at him. John was about to hit it with an energy siphon, when the Scorch suddenly recoiled, and its arm fell off. Upon closer inspections, one could have made out the small rockets smashing into it from above, courtesy of Major Kaiden Alenko.

Under the sustained mortar barrage, the Scorch fell quickly. After all, said barrage was meant to take down heavily fortified structures, not Titans. Sheppard regained his composure, and exited the Titan, giving back control to his AI.

"Kaiden! Nice of you to drop by. By any chance, have you seen an Ion with one arm?" Sheppard asked, while reviewing the damage report DT gave him.

"Yes, sir. Took care of it. It was pretty banged up. I think I did it a favor, by killing it." The newly arrived Pilot answered, as he took off his helmet.

"May I ask you, where you were? It was rather hot here. I mean, DoT and I handled it well, but you know..." John tried joking, as he applied the repair kits forr his Titan.

"Yes. Nice job, commander. Saw that flight in the end. Not gonna lie, I wouldn't do that, unless my life was on the line." Kaiden said, as his Titan came around the corner. It was a very new chassis, the Predator. It is so new, in fact, it was still in the experimental state. It was a derivative of the Tone, but took it to the next level. It was all about locating enemies, and taking them down from range. It used a Railgun, modified to embed a tracker on hit, which can be used as a marker for close air support, or basically any smart munitions. It also had a particle wall, as due to allocating most of the cores output, the shields were severely weakened. The chassis was also equipped with a pair of adept pods, the missiles from which can even be used as mortar shells, each of these pods housed enough missiles to take down numerous titans. It also had another ability. It can increase its core output, and channel it into its echo-locators, basically giving a clear visual image of everything in its effective radius, for as much, as thirty seconds. Fifteen more, if you would risk melting the reactor casing.

It was the opposite of the Vanguard 3. The Vanguard relied on conventional combat. The most non-conventional piece of equipment it has are the electric smoke charges. In return, it was much better equipped with conventional weaponry. It had so many external shield emitters, it was hard to count. It could project particle walls, deploy a vortex shield, and had a deployable gun-shield. And then it had the energy siphon, which basically uses the power from the hit Titan, to recharge your shields. And then, there are the Offensive abilities of the Vanguard. The two Fenrir pods, each housing 12 rockets, a precision laser, and a cluster missile. They were truly some of the finest pieces of weaponry, the Ex-Militia engineers came up with. The Vanguard didn't lack in utility, either. Starting with the four inciendiary traps, the ability to fly, and the latest, the Phase dash. It was a piece of equipment, which goes back, as far as Typhon. Yet, it's still not entirely understood, even today. If Sheppard got it right, the current theory is that it places the Titan inside an alternate space, which the computer on-board creates, which mimics the environment in normal space. The computer has limited capacity, however, so time inside this artificial space has to be limited, to avoid glitches, or crashing reality. But most importantly, something that always bothered Sheppard was the lack of a core ability on his Titan.  
On the other hand, the Predator was much more focused into a specific role. That was the hunter, finding enemies, relaying their location to friendly units, or taking them down from far, limiting damage to the Titan. It was more focused on the abilities, having a weapon specifically modified to mark enemies, the mortar shells, or its 'core ability'. Sheppard would have switched to one of these ability-Titans, but he had grown to the Vanguard.

"Alright, Kaiden. No need to praise me. Just wanted to survive." Sheppard said, as he dropped from the back of his Titan. It was almost completely repaired, besides some minor damage on the lower torso, but the paintjob was all scratched, to the point, where calling it battle-scars wouldn't fit.

"Sure, if you say so." Kaiden replied with doubt in his voice, which only made John roll his eyes.

"By the way, what will Ingram get us? We got Titans here, so we would have to find at least a small transport, to take them back."

"Yeah, I already told her to leave the crow. She said she found a Bear, and she'll be here in a minute." Kaiden said, as if it was nothing.

"What? That's great, Kaiden. I should probably nominate her for a promotion. Never gets much appreciation." Sheppard said, with a hint of guilt in his voice. He switched channels. "Oh, Ashley! You can come out. We'll have extraction in a minute, or so, and we've dealt with all hostiles."

"Thank god." Said her annoyed voice from Sheppards helmet. "The guy was starting to get on my nerves."

"Told you to shoot him, if he's too much trouble." John said, but this time out loud, towards the door, as he saw Ashley, and their captive emerge from the building. He would have asked, how what was exactly the problem with Kiora, but Ingram arrived with the Bear. It had a matte coating, and wore the logo of the Marauder Corps. John and Kaiden quickly loaded on their Titans, then Ashley took aboard their guest, and finally the two guys went in. The large sliding doors closed, and the relatively small ship took off, towards a battle, no one was ready for.

* * *

The small team was sitting in the cockpit, gossiping about one of the other squads, as the auto-pilot took the ship out of the planets atmosphere.

"I'm telling you, Jane, and her squad are completely insane. Last time, they were deployed behind enemy lines, that Thompson guy started wall-running in front of the enemy grunts. They say, he ran so fast, he wasn't even hit once. He supposedly did it as distraction, so his team could come back with so much data, the techs are still going through some of it." Ingram completed her little story.

"Yeah... There's no way. I mean, I've seen some grunts, but most DO have good enough aim to hit a pilot in the open, given time." Ashley cut in, sounding tired.

"Look, I'm not saying, he did it word-to-word, but the nickname 'maniac' has to come from a real basis." Ingram responded, but it came out, sounding condescending. -Sorry, that came out wrong. But my point still stands.

"I saw the guy during one of the Mars raids. He really is fast." Said Sheppard.

"You see? That's... "Ingram would have surely completed that sentence, if she wasn't cut off by Kaiden.

"What the... Wow. That's... Bad." Was all he said, while looking at one of the radar screens.

It showed the battle. And boy, did it escalate, from the last time, they've seen it. The 23rd fleet was most likely ambushed. Sheppard went to a different computer, and brought up the same screen there. The battle was chaotic. Formations were broken, and the blue of the Alliance mixed with the dark-yellow of the Marauders. The ships were marked, using unique icons. For an example Sheppard spotted the large blue rectangles, which marked the Alliance MacAllan class troop carriers. Most were locked in battle. And when a troop carrier has to go in close quarters combat, you know shit's not good. His eyes, however quickly found one, which wasn't in an engagement. The New Frontiers. John queried the ships status, and wasn't surprised to find out, it actually suffered damage. However, it looked like the ship didn't have the damage, usually required to withdraw it from combat. That meant, Xuen wanted them extracted really bad. Suddenly one of the MacAllans inside a larger cloud vanished, and no one had to guess, what the reason might have been.

He turned back, to see Ingram already in her pilots seat, holding the joysticks, which controlled their transport. Sheppard turned to her.

"How much resistance do you think we'll run into?" He asked, while he checked his armors EVA functions.

"Not much at best." She started. "Still, a quickly ascending transport WILL draw attention."

"Ingram, this doesn't have ANY guns to defend ourselves." Kaiden choose to join their conversation.

"Yes." Ingram answered, sounding frustrated, while Ashley just sat in the back, next to the table. She was probably getting her armor ready for space.

Sheppard looked really annoyed at their lack of defenses, so he started thinking. First, it was about asking the fleet for an escort, but that would only draw more suspicion. They could circle the planet, and go in, undetected, but the increase in time would put the fleet at risk.

And then he got an idea. It was one of _those_ ideas. Nevertheless, they didn't have many other choices. But before he had any time to think more about it, the alarms on-board began to scream in an unbearable tone.

"Inbound Space-borne interceptors. One ship also sent us a missile. It's heat tracker, by the looks. I probably can't shake it." Ingram reported. Sheppard knew, he had to propose his plan now, or morale would collapse.

"Kaiden, Ashley. Come with me. Get ready for space. Ingram, the moment we're out of the cockpit, seal yourself in here, but keep us informed. If the missile comes anywhere in visible distance, send us its position."

The three of them made their way into the cargo hold, where the two Titans were already waiting. Sheppard switched to in-squad comms, and told his team to do so as well.

"Kaiden, Ashley, please go out the airlocks, and attach to the hull, using your mag-boots. You'll have to shoot down the missile. I'll take out the fighters." He finished, then headed for his Titan.

"Well, this is going to be a first." Ashley mumbled.

"Ingram, please, depressurize cargo hold." John said. He could feel his suit switch to his backup oxygen pack, and felt the filters start quietly humming. By the time, he looked up, the airlock was sealed, and the others were gone. "Okay, DT. I'm coming in." He said, as he remotely opened the Titans hatch, and climbed in.

"Guys, the missile is closing in. It'll be visible in a couple seconds." Ingrams voice came from his helmet.

"Ash, Kaiden, you all heard that?"

"Yes. We're following closely. The moment we see it, we'll fire. Right, Ashley?"

"Damn straight." She answered simply.

"Guys, you have to shoot it down." Came Ingrams voice again, but this time it was more agitated.

"Yeah, thanks, I'm trying to line up my shots." Ashley said, sounding afraid, and angry.

Suddenly, a shockwave threw the ship. It was really strong.

"How close was that?" Was all John was managed to ask.

"If it was any closer, I'd be cooked." Came Kaidens voice, relief radiating from his voice.

"Okay. Come back in. We still have the fighters to take care of. Ingram, how much time, til those hit us?"

"About a minute, until I would be comfortable taking shots in their place. I can avoid getting hit for two minutes at best, and we can take few of their bullets." She finished, still sounding alarmed. She had every reason to be, but still. John wasn't used to her being like this.

"We're here." Announced Kaiden, as he entered the cargo hold, with Ashley tightly behind him.

"Nice shot. Get in your Titan. Ash, you take a charge rifle, and help us."

Then, John activated the Link. He was already sitting in the Titan, so he had no difficulties, switching to his companions visual receptors. He stood up in the Titan, almost reaching the ceiling. He loaded the XO-24, and told Kaiden to be ready.

Then, they waited. Waiting for a minute in a situation like this is like eternity. And this time was no different. By the Time, the first shot hit them, John had already thought of about fifteen scenarios, where they would die. However, after receiving the hit, he instantly contacted Ingram.

"Blow the doors."

And the large sliding doors on both sides of the transports back were torn off by the hydraulics blowing up. He could now see out into space. A familiar sight. But he was not looking for the familiar part. what he sought was much easier to find, and he did. Two small, fast-moving lights. He took aim, and began shooting.

The interceptors dodged, to no surprise, and he adjusted his aim. He was pretty sure, his chaingun hit at least one, but it was hard to tell from this distance, even with the enhanced vision, his Titan provided him with. Then, the ship shook, as he saw Kaidens projectile head out into the dark, and one of their pursuers blew up.

"Nice job. One more to go." He wanted to continue, but Ingram cut in.

"Okay, they haven't sent anything else, and we crossed the green line, so we're safe, if you can kill that one." Ingram sounded a bit relieved this time.

Sheppard took aim with one of the precision lasers, in one of the adept pods. And he fired. He saw the beam hit, and cripple the enemy fighter, but it didn't blow. He tried to hit it again, but it drifted away, and he missed.

John told the two others out here with him, to stay alert, while he talks with Ingram.

They acknowledged, and he shut down his Titan. The Titan defaulted into a crouching position, and opened its hatch, letting Sheppard out. This time, however, he pulled out a large green chip from the seat under him. It had the scratched letters: "DT-0103". He put it inside a pocket on his armor, and made his way into the cockpit.

"Ingram, nice flying." He complimented the only pilot in his team of Pilots.

"Thanks. By the way, good thinking, commander. I may have flown nice, but without you, that missile would have taken us all down." She looked to the corner, where her sights fell upon a man, knocked out, with a virus, uploaded into his neural port.

"Yeah, I hope he's worth it." was all, John managed to say.

They spent the rest of the journey sitting quietly, with John sometimes checking in, on Ashley and Kaiden.

"This is the New Frontiers, welcome home, away team. We'll find you a nice and cozy hangar, and you can land." Said the Shuttle-coordinator on the ship, a man named George Teller.

Sheppard was about to respond, when the screens went red, and the ship started shaking. He glanced at the radar, and suddenly an entire strike-group was scattered near the New Frontiers.

"Ingram, get in a hangar. NOW!" He shouted, knowing full well, even if he just said it, it would have had the same effect.

However, it appeared to be too late. The Bear transport shook, and John could Ingram swear. The lights flickered, and John was pretty sure, he felt a bit more of their acceleration.

A quiet curse, and a huge force slapping him in the head were the last things, he remembered, before waking up on the ship, for the first time after their crash.

* * *

 **Authors note: If you managed to somehow go through this, then thanks. Means a lot.**

 **You all know what they say about reviews. They're supposedly good for the author to receive many. xD**

 **Also, please tell me about typos.**


	2. Where to?

**Yep, that's how long pauses may get. I haven't really had any motivation to write until recently, and I hope I don't upset people by saying that. Plus sorry, as it's not exactly very long. But I'll try to get the next out faster than this.**

 **So, here is the timeline I promised. Please tell me, if there are any inconsistencies.**

* * *

Systems Alliance Archives.

History inquiry (Rank: Admiral)

The year zero is the destruction of the Demeter Refueling Facilities. (marked a(fter).d(emeter), b(efore.)d(emeter).)

 _Italics_ contain classified data.

3 a.d. (2412 in old Earth Calendar): the SRS conducts what is meant to be a raid on an IMC facility on the planet Typhon. It goes terribly, the Militia loses the entire 4th fleet.  
Jack Cooper manages to stop the experimental Fold device from activating, and potentially destroying the planet Harmony.  
 _The fold device is rumored to be of alien origin, although it can't be confirmed, nor denied._

4 a.d.: _The Expeditionary fleet encounters a confirmed alien device, similar in structure and working to the IMC fold weapon, confirming alien origins._  
The Marauders broke off from the SRS.

6 a.d.: The SRS is dissolved, upon request from Sarah Briggs.

9 a.d: The Systems Alliance is officially formed, adopts the new calendar, starting from the battle of Demeter.  
It only consists of 43 worlds, but many more are joining, due to protection from pirates.

10 a.d.: The Alliance restructures its military entirely. Brings more order.  
It took the previous 'cadre' system, and reshaped the different popular, and renowned groups to be branches of the military.  
 _Constant upgrades to not only the Pilot program, but their weapons as well, lead to better equipped, and better skilled Pilots.  
The core war begins._

The Core War.:  
Earth has been ecologically decimated, and required its inhabitants to be relocated. The IMC would be the one to be trusted with the job.  
The only possible charted space to relocate is the Frontier, and a war springs from the aggressive methods of the IMC. The now united frontier has no trouble fighting back. Overall, the Alliance has major victories over the IMC forces, comprised of now older ships, and mercenaries. The fighting expands into the Core systems, meaning Sol and its neighborhood. The Alliance wins through a bloody fight, at the end of which the IMC bombard Earth, and tries to blame it on the Systems Alliance. The Core systems are annexed into the Alliance. Sol turns out to be a massive boon in terms of industry, even without Earths might

11 a.d.: The Alliance's foundries, and researchers start working on the next generation of Titans.  
The results are the Vanguard 3, The Predator, The Brute, The Omnipotent, The Hunter, The Zenith, and the highly controversial Warrior chassis'.  
 _The First exploration fleet uncovers a small amount of a material, which has the capability to manipulate mass. Turns out to be hard to integrate into existing systems. Identified, as one of the unknown elements in the Fold artifacts._  
 _Alliance Spec Ops takes over the project._

12 a.d.: The Marauders start to get braver in their raids.  
The second and third exploration fleets are launched.

22 a.d. (now): The Second expeditionary fleet makes it's first great discovery.

* * *

Sheppard stood in front of Admiral Xuen, on the Hit with Hell, one of the dedicated battleships of the 23rd fleet. It was one of the older Hope class ships, originally meant to be an artillery vessel, but the designers went crazy with armor plating and shields, so they got a battleship instead. Sheppard knew, they needed every last ship they could get, even if they were a couple years behind current technology. After all, he has seen the second Fold artifact recovered from a planet, with an unpronounceable designation. And there were other, non-technological ruins around it. He was invited to take a look at it, as he actually was on Typhon, and even got a good couple of looks at the Fold device, before Cooper destroyed it, and the planet. Whatever built it was very advanced, and it was gone. They had to be ready in case they ever came back.

John looked at his superior, who was handling a call, which came from one of the smaller cruisers. What Sheppard could make out pointed to it being a request to scrap one of the disabled frigates for parts.

"All right. You can do it." Said the admiral, after thinking about it. "Now if you excuse me, I have other matters, I need to attend to." There was a second of silence in the room, after which, he continued. "Good. Report about your repairs in six hours. Xuen out." He touched his earpiece, and turned to Sheppard, questioningly. John saw a moment to interrupt, and so he did.

"Sir, I have my report on the latest operation. It should be in your inbox." He said, as he looked around in the room. It had surprisingly small space, for an Admiral, who would have to be ready in seconds, even if sleeping, or taking a bath. And small room in such cases is very limiting.

"Yes, I saw it. Just hadn't yet gotten to reading it. Some of the carriers are still figuring out what damage they took, and until I have everything together, only a military shipyard will take us in for repairs. Also, the ships with experimental Fold tech couldn't go in a civil dock, even if I wanted them to." He looked at Sheppard, and sighed. "I'm rambling, am I not?"

"No problem Admiral. Wouldn't want to be in your position right now." Sheppard added, to lighten the mood.

"Well, better say why you're here, as the Aikastar is trying to call me again." Xuen said to John offhand, while he wrote something on his data-pad.

"First, I'd like to nominate Ingram for a promotion." The man, sitting behind the desk turned to John, lowered his pad, and smiled.

"Now? Bit too late." He saw that John wanted to interrupt, but raised a finger. "No, it's not actually a promotion, but Intelligence wants her. Nothing we can do about that."

"But... Just like that? How long did you know?" John asked, his face showing a considerable sign of disbelief.

"A week. Sorry for not telling you. I thought it may impact your performance here."

"An adequate assumption. I'm fu-rious right now." Sheppard tried to play it off cool, in an almost mocking tone, but failed.

"So, you'll be the two man team. I mean, until we find you and Williams another four guys." Xuen bent his seat back, and relaxed. "Kaiden is probably not coming out of that operating room for days. And even if he does, he'll spend a month in stasis, while I either approve getting him the cybernetics, or a simulacrum body, if it all goes bad."

"Is he that bad?" Sheppard asked.

"Worse. Last time, I asked for an update, the guy handling the machinery told me 'fuck off, I'm tired'. That's all I know." The admiral finished.

Sheppard then tried to change the topic.

"Sir, I thought about the job you were offering. If you tell me what it is, and Ash agrees, I'll accept."

"Yeah, I knew that would come up." He punched some buttons on his desk, and a projector came online, with a soft hum. John was about to ask, when the admiral simply said: "You'll want to see this."

Then, with the press of a button, a set of images were shown on the wall behind the admiral. They were clearly taken in space. In the background, there were asteroids, many of them, but the focus fell onto a large, ice-covered rock. The admiral looked at his Pilot in front of him, and started explaining. "Three days ago, the second expeditionary fleet stumbled across weird readings, the likes of which we've only seen three times before." This immediately made John snap his eyes onto the pictures, trying to find something, he saw years ago. The admiral clicked the button again, and the pictures changed.

Now, instead of the ice-covered rock, there was a large construct. It was silver-textured, and elongated. But what shocked Sheppard to the bone was the thing in its middle. A fold weapon. Or, rather what looked like one. Two thin tori, spinning on different axis, but a common center. The light, emitted by the Ark was missing, but John was still surprised

"According to their readings, that... thing has more of the fold material, than both of the dig-sites and the Typhon ruins together." He made a pause, so John can take it in, then went on. "It is obvious, what we're seeing at the center of it, but the superstructure is new. I mean, NEW. Not even in the recovered ARES logs have we seen any reference to it. There was no indication. The techs are going crazy. They are talking about mass-less corridors, and uses for it in transportation."

"And they want the people with Fold experience to be there." Sheppard guessed. The admiral just gave a nod, as if it was obvious.

"Sheppard." The admiral looked into his eyes, losing every aspect of his face that made him look cheerful. "You have to take this. If there is any truth in what the experts are saying, this is taming fire. Or inventing the wheel. Or the jump drive. If it's done improperly, humanity will have another conflict on its hands, be it a weapon, or a transportation apparatus. You have the most experience with that thing besides Cooper, and if you don't go willingly, I'll order you to go."

"I wouldn't have turned it down. I don't like taking risks, but I'm not stupid. When are we supposed to go?"

"Been keeping a transport for you. You get yourself and Williams packed, and you're leaving." He looked away, a faint grin appearing on his face "Be sure to tell me, if you mess it up. Would hate it to hear about it from command."

"Will do. Permission to leave, sir?"

"Granted. Get ready, the clock is ticking."

* * *

Sheppard was in Hangar nine aboard the _Lions' Courage,_ one of the battle-carriers. Around him Titans were packing things into shuttles, while people on the deck were checking lists. Typical after-engagement procedures, especially if the battle was big. Like this one. Sheppard was pretty up in the chain of gossip, being a senior pilot, so he heard things. Like that one of the small cruisers was now held together with quick-sealing compounds, meant for space suits. Then there was the story about the _Ornamented Vision,_ a battleship, resorting to loading silverware into its coilguns. Supposedly, they even got a kill with it. Now John knew a thing, or two about finding creative way to kill people (It was his job after all), but this genuinely made him go wow, the first time he heard it.

Then, something snapped him back to reality

"Sir, the ship is scheduled to leave in a minute." A woman in a bright orange flight-deck coveralls said with a tablet in her hand.

"Yes, sorry." He excused himself, then started walking up the ramp, inside the transport. He was about to seal the airlock, when a voice called his name. He looked back, and saw a womans silhouette in the standard off-combat pilot jumpsuit. Even without his enhanced eyes, he could have seen the nametag on it. Ingram H.

"John, I'd go." She started.

"It's not your choice." He saw concern on her face, so he tried to calm her down. "It's the second most prestigious job a pilot can have. I know several of the guys in the intelligence program, and they'll take good care of you. If not, just tell me." He finished with a wink.

"I know, it's just... you were the best commander I've had, and... Thank you" She gave a smile, after which she turned back and started to walk away.

"Ingram, take care of yourself." Sheppard whispered, as he pressed a button, and the airlock sealed. He went through a couple of doors, and found himself in a larger room, where people were sitting at tables, and eating from uniform trays.

Sheppard felt home. He spent his last twenty years going from battlefield to battlefield, and most of that time was spent in such transports, and has met most of the now-senior Pilots. He once even fought with MacAllan. Now, however, his 'home' felt alien. Ever since the forming of the Systems Alliance, and the regulations to the military, the mess halls started to become emptier. No longer were they filled with Pilots, sharing their stories, and the grunts listening to them. No longer was it a disorganized pub, but something, Sheppard would have expected from the IMC.

"Hey, you going to sit down?" Ashley shook him back into this world.

"Yeah, just daydreaming." He answered quickly, as he sat down.

"Not hungry?" She asked, and only received a nod from John. "Can't blame you. Wouldn't want to go near one of those, if I was on Typhon either"

"Well, yeah. So, how about you look over the possible teammate list, the Expeditionary fleets admiral sent?" He asked, hopefully.

"And leave you out of all that fun paperwork? Hell no. We have time anyway. It's gonna take like a day to get there." She said, then started eating again. Sheppard tried to answer, but no good comebacks came to his mind, so he just went for a tray, and joined Ashley in eating. It was going to be a loooong and boring ride, he knew that much.

* * *

John was asleep, in his cabin, when he was woken up by someone, by coughing. He blinked a couple times, to clear his vision, then sat up. Next to his bed, he saw the captain of their transport. John wanted to ask if he was needed anywhere, and that's why he was woken up, but he was cut off.

"Pilot, we have received news from the expeditionary fleet, and they are sending a transport of their own. And if my clock is right, they'll be here in twenty minutes."

Now Sheppard was used to being woken up, but he could count the times, he was required to change transports, on one hand.

"Alright, shouldn't be too hard. Thanks for telling me."

"There is a complication, they don't want to take your teammate." The captain said, with an expression that was shouting: Why do **I** have to tell him?

"No problem, if they won't I'll just tell them I'm not going either, and you can then take us back to the fleet." Sheppard conveyed the first reaction he had. It was not unheard of that an admiral wants to supply a pilot with his own men, but to make the newcomer leave his teammate behind was a first for John.

"Okay, Pilot. If you say so." The captain said unsure, then walked out of his cabin.

Sheppard sat up and looked around. The room was dimly lit, and was a bedroom and living room in one. The bed ha sat on was in a corner, next to a large shelf. In the middle of the room was a table and two chairs around it, which were looking at a screen built into the wall opposite from the bed.

Not like he cared. He opened the door, which lead into his personal bathroom. The benefits of being a Pilot with two decades' worth of experience and battles under your belt.

* * *

Ashley was on the docking port, pacing nervously back and forth. She got a call from Sheppard a couple minutes ago that there would be complications, so be at the airlock, waiting.

Well, SHE was there. Her superior wasn't. She was really nervous.

Then it got worse. The airlock hissed, and the lights around the large bulky door turned green.

"Sheppard" She whispered, kind of annoyed. The door hissed open.

Behind the door, stood two masculine figures, both wearing the same armor, with blue and gray markings, and lines on a black base. Both had a knife in a sheath on their chest, and a holster at their right side. One wore a gray helmet with an older fashion x-shaped visor, and the other had a torn scarf around his neck.

"We're here for commander Sheppard." The one without helmet said, his eyes not telling of any emotion.

"Should be here any second." Was all Ashley could say. While she said that the door behind her opened, and she heard quick steps.

"Just in time to see the welcoming committee" Ashley was about to facepalm at his commander taking the situation so lightly. Then, Sheppard looked at the helmetless man, and his grin faded. "So, Shadows." He said, with the intention of letting Ashley know who these people are. "Nice new armor, Josh."

At first Ashley was surprised by the strangers being Shadows, but then the bigger shock came when she realized Sheppard must know at least one of them. Back when there was war, the Shadow Guild was set up under Bish, to extract high value information, and personnel from heavily hostile environments. And they were legendary at what they did. Before she could think into it anything further their new 'friend' started talking.

"Actually, former Shadow, John. You know, without a war, a stealth unit runs out of things to do. And the armor is actually really cool." The man in the helmet wanted to step forward, but his partner waved him down.

"So after the Shadows you went to the expeditionary force?" Sheppard asked.

"Yeah. And we can talk about this while we are on the way. There's a great deal of chaos in our fleet at the moment, and the admiral is expecting you." Then Josh and the other Pilot began to walk back into their ship.

"I won't go." John said, making them look back.

"Because?" This was the first time the other Pilot spoke, his voice deep and soothing.

"Because she wouldn't be coming with me." John answered, looking at their, well, escorts, for lack of a better term.

"You know what?" Josh said in an annoyed tone. "Take her. The ship has space for her. You'll have to convince the admiral to let her stay, not me. But, as I said we are on a timetable and we have to leave in the next three minutes. So please come." He finished talking, and walked into the docked ship, disappearing after a turn. The other Pilot just nodded to Sheppard and followed his comrade. John turned to Ashley.

"Well, I hope that bag of yours really does have everything you need, as we won't be near civilization for quite a while, if all goes as I think."

"Pessimistic, Commander?" Ashley asked.

"No, I just have a feeling." Sheppard said, then grabbed a bag that lay behind him all this time.

He walked into the ship, while Ashley picked up her bag, and after a moment followed him. But one thing still bothered her. How did Sheppard know a Shadow? They were untraceable, and classified even now. What she heard, she heard from rumors. It was a strange thing. Not something that she expected. As she stepped into the docked ship, the airlock behind her hissed and the door closed. For some reason she wondered if she made the right decision.

* * *

John finally caught up to their hosts, who were sitting in a small room wit tables for eight people at best. So this was a smaller ship, maybe even a personal one. It was possible, as the expeditionary fleets had immense funding. To be honest, it was sort of necessary, as once again, humanity was outgrowing its colonies, and as it turns out, developing arcologies is more costly than sending the people to new colonies.

"So, will you show us our rooms?" Sheppard asked.

"There are six rooms on the ship. Ours are locked. Just claim one as yours. I mean, if you want to. We have three hours until we get to the jump point, then we'll land on the Annapolis 2." Josh answered. The other Pilot took off his helmet, revealing a dark skin with blue eyes, which had to be cybernetic, as he saw the circuits in them. Sheppard turned to him after he sat down on the other end of the table.

"Can I know your name? I mean, we'll be working together in the fleet, right?"

"Yes. I'm Jacob Taylor, Adept Pilot. Pleasure to know you, Josh talked a lot about that one mission on Mars." Jacob answered. "And sorry for pressing you to come, but there really is a lot going on in the fleet. We..." Here, he looked at Josh for confirmation, who just simply nodded. "We may have our first extra-terrestrial encounter in three days."

"What?!" Came a shocked voice from the door. John quickly tried to reassure everyone.

"Calm down Ashley." He turned to the Expeditionaries. "She'll be working with us, she can know about this. And I'd like to know more about these aliens of yours. That's not a claim you can make lightly." Sheppard finished, a look of interest on his face.

"The scientists were messing with the fold artifact, when they picked up gravitational anomalies heading our way. They say that's how trying to use gravity for travel looks, so we're all a bit on alert." Jacob answered, in a tone that suggested that he was telling of a sport game, rather than humanity's first contact with aliens.

"Oookay. And what are we supposed to do? Surely, the..." John paused to think of the right word. "Meeting. Yes, the meeting can't be the reason we are requested. Is it the artifact?"

"Sheppard, we tried to board it." Josh said, trying to lead up the topic. "We went to the superstructure, cut a hole in it, went in, through small, tight tunnels, and found nothing for hours. We were about to call off the mission, when one of the groups found what looked like a... I have no idea. A large sphere, glowing in a blue light, giving off impossible readings." He would have continued, but stopped, as he saw Johns knowing, terrified look.

"The Ark..." Came the faint whisper from Sheppard after a minute of silence. No one knew what that meant, however, as it was highly classified info. Sheppard only knew about it, because after Typhon, when he was questioned, they wanted to know, if he was in contact with it. He didn't know what it looked like, and asked for a description. And damn the seven hells, what Josh described fitted the Ark perfectly "What happened?" He asked, afraid of what he was going to hear.

"Well, they tried to take it. Emphasis on tried. When they tried to move it, it... Ruptured. When we found them, they were lying on the ground, knocked out, wounds all over them, bones broken in multiple places per person, and the walls had a hard time deciding which way was up."

"Are they alive?" Was the question. From Ashley.

"Most of them. One guy needed surgery to take a rib out of his lungs that the nanobots couldn't solve, so the doctors tried to help him." Jacob paused for a second. "The guy lay there on the table. Sedated. Opened up, his heart visible." He had to stop again, as he recalled the events.

* * *

"Give me something to scratch the new tissue off with." Said the senior doctor in a Scottish accent, as he looked at the man in front of him, whose chest was split in two. The broken and twisted rib was clear to see, even if the nanobots already tried to remake the muscles that were supposed to be there, creating a grotesque mass of flesh that didn't look right. One of the curses of treating pilots. Usually, with time such broken bones snap back into place and the wildly grown flesh is replaced, but the guy was unlucky enough to get it through his lung, and would have suffocated by the time that happens.

One of his assistants gave him a spoon-like contraption, with which he began to scoop away the unnatural growth. As he went on, the other doctors got to his side, and started applying stitches to the area, to prevent the Pilot from bleeding out.

As he was just done with the last part, he put down the spoon, asked for the last set of stitches, and was just about to apply them, when the doctor felt pressure on his abdomen, and couldn't move his hands forward, while the man was still bleeding from the new wound. He looked down, to see a blue glow. Then he turned his head back up, seemingly confused. When he did so, he saw that the Pilots eyes were open, and he looked terrified.

It was over in a second. The man flared in blue light, the intensity of which rivaled a sun, and everyone in the room was thrown into the walls, denting them, and reducing the medical staff into bloody masses of flesh, that slowly slid down the warped metal, covering the floor in a layer of all sorts of bodily fluids.

In the observation room someone vomited. Others were hitting the glass, intending to break it. After a couple swings from everyone, the cracked glass gave away, its pieces falling onto the bloody floor.

The crew just stood in shock, as the Pilots, who broke in were trying to search for survivors.

* * *

By the time we got a new set of medical personnel, the guy bled out." Finished Jacob.

"So you say that the Ark gave him some sort of super-power?" Ashley asked, frowning.

"If that's a super-power, I don't want any of it." Josh said grimly.

"Of course, we understand how disturbing it must have been for you, but that thing was the same as what powered the fold weapon on Typhon." John said. Then he realized why they were here. Everyone who was in any contact with the Fold weapon was either in a different expeditionary fleet who-knows-where, or recruited into less discrete parts of the military. "Oh. You need someone who's been briefed on Fold artifacts and isn't spec ops."

"Yes. The admiral went as far as saying we're allowed to kidnap you." Jacob answered with a smirk on his face. "Glad we didn't need to though. If you're half as decent as Josh says you are, we'd have had to scratch our limbs up from the floor by the end."

"Anyway, if you need my knowledge, and not my combat prowess, I'm going to get out of armor, and lay down for a bit." John started walking out. When he was in the door, his bag still slung over his back, he turned around, and motioned for Ashley to come.

She followed, and soon they were in the hall, walking toward the crew quarters, not saying a word. When they reached them, Sheppard pulled out a card from one of the doors, and Ashley pulled out one from another. John was about to close the now open door behind him, but saw Ashley come into his room as well.

"Is there something, Williams?" He asked, not sure what to make of the situation.

"I just wanted to ask some questions. What I just learned about you in the last half hour was more than the last two years."

"Ask away. I mean, as long, as the questions are not personal." Sheppard said back with a gentle voice.

"So, what was Typhon like?" The small grin on Sheppards face faded.

"I don't want to answer that."

"May I know why?"

"It's personal." He said with grief in his voice. So he lost someone there, Ashley deduced.

"Then pretend I didn't ask. Next, how do you know a Shadow?"

"Former Shadow." Sheppard corrected, and saw Ashley roll her blue eyes. "It's a... long story. As I told you before, I was there for the Sol campaign, aboard a smaller cruiser, and operated as part of a 'Getting friendly units out of shit' group. You could imagine my surprise, when during the briefing we were told we were going to rescue Shadows, who got locked into an EMP testing facility on Mars during one of the raids." He paused. "Actually, we have time and I'm not that tired, so might as well tell you." He paused, getting his memories in order, and started telling the tale of how a Pilot rescues a Shadow squad, and takes down an IMC battle-carrier in the same motion.

* * *

 **Okay, bit more info about this story.  
** **First, I'm going to royally fuck over the Mass Effect Universe parts setting. Don't expect what you would from a normal ME crossover. (I'll keep the characters mostly, tho)  
Second, my Shep will be more paragon than not. At least for now.**

 **I'll try to do the next chapter faster than this one, but I can't promise anything.**


	3. Back in Black And trouble

"So, that's how Josh took out the entire bridge crew with one clip from an alternator." Sheppard finished the story.

"Whaaat? That's crazy. A throw-away one-way cover can't stay up that long." Ashley exclaimed. She did that a lot in the last five hours, as they were in transit toward the expeditionary fleet.

"He did it in a single arm swing, only changing his shooting angle vertically, as his arm swung around in front of him once. Allison's swing" Then Sheppard added with a sheepish grin. "I tried to do that after I saw him doing it. Needless to say, it took years to reproduce."

"Wait a moment. You're telling me that you _can_ do that?" Ashley's mouth was wide open, and she was just generally... Shocked might be too much to describe what she felt, so the closest term is surprised.

"As I said, it took a couple years to pull it off. But I can do it, yes." Sheppard said like it was not something that master level Pilots took a decade to learn.

"Well. Back to the tale, how did you get off the ship that was by that time falling down onto the planet?" Ashley asked, eager to learn more of Sheppards feats. Just by what she learned in the last couple hours, her superior was the definition of being humble. He never acted like he was a war hero, like Cooper, or MacAllan. He never even gave a sign he took part in some of the System Alliances most important battles. And not even as a background combatant. He personally lead a charge against the Hammond headquarters on Earth. Ashley simply had no idea how the man was still just an Adept Pilot, when he could even have his own battallion.

"Well. That in itself is a great story. So we were separated on a battle-carrier..." John left a pause so Ashley could imagine the two kilometer long monsters of metal, that the IMC's Goulding class carriers were. "And we were falling into the airless thus dragless atmosphere of Mars...

* * *

Sheppard just ran out of the ships engineering bay, after he put an entire clip into the reactor.

At this point it was unlikely that they would survive, so they at least wanted to cause some damage. The thought made him smirk. The Shadows were scattered around the ship, taking down VIP's per orders.

The VIP's wanted to get to evac ships in the lower hangars, but were being picked off one by one. Sadly, these were some of the most wanted war criminals so they could not be given the chance to escape. To ensure that, we sabotaged said evac ships when we got on-board. Now the Shadows were just confirming kills for command.

The one called Josh (the only one to give his name) signaled that he killed his last mark, and was going back to the upper port hangar, where they could maybe find a ship. The problem was twofold. First, said hangar took a hit from an Alliance artillery vessel, not simply depressurizing it, but collapsing most of it as well. Second, the ship was already falling into the low gravity planet, and they had a limited amount of time.

Sheppard was heading there as well, his own task complete. While running through the disabled ship, mostly relying on his suits thermal vision and echolocation, he killed only those who actively attacked him or tried to stop him. Even this way he managed to rack up at least fifty confirmed kills. When he reached the target hangar he checked his suit, if it was still airtight. It was, so he blew open the bulkhead in front of him with the emergency release. The air came rushing out, pulling him forward with such force that his jump-kit had to compensate.

When the rush was over, his suits OS put up a gauge on the upper left side of his HUD, marking the amount of air he had left. He deemed it enough.

Then he saw Josh standing there next to a goblin transport that among other things, was missing a wing. In its place one could find an ugly piece of torn metal, bent at a wrong angle. All around the large room, now open to space, sparks were flying and leaking oxygen tanks made fire burst from the walls.

" Sheppard. Good, at least we die together." spoke one of the Shadows, his voice coming from the helmets communicator unit.

"Didn't plan on doing that." Sheppard replied honestly, with a small amount of concern in his voice.

"Well. I mean, if you have an idea we're all up for it. Just please be aware that we talked through all of the sane ideas." another answered.

"And even the less sane ones." Josh added.

Sheppard started thinking. According to the calculations, they had four minutes until they reached a point of no return, where the only way they could stop included such deceleration that would surely kill them. In the meanwhile two more Shadows arrived, making the team full once again. Six. Plus Sheppard, of course.

Then as the newcomer eventually walked past him, he saw their jump-kits and got the worst idea he ever had. But it depended on one factor. He had to ask.

"Guys. Anyone has an AI chip with them?" At first he only got confused heads turned in his direction, then some answered.

"No. Sorry"

"Left her back on ship."

"Don't have my new one yet."

And then.

"Yes." The female shadow held out her chip in her left hand. "What you need him for?"

"You all ready for the worst idea I've ever had?" Sheppard asked. Some laughed, others just shrugged. "Good. We'll get the AI to calculate a trajectory for all of us, we jump out, and slow our descent with jump-kits." He finished. those who were laughing previously stopped, and those who weren't now were.

"You know we can't slow back from terminal velocity." One of them stated matter-of-factly.

"That's why we'll be using multiple jump-kits. More thrusters, more performance." He finished.

"Hol' up, that may actually work!" Exclaimed one of the Shadows, hope in his voice. "Where do we get the kits from?"

"I saw a Pilot armory on the way. Just two corridors away." As he finished saying that, everyone stood up and started running where he was now pointing. He went after them, breaking into a hard sprint, as if fighting for his life. Actually, he thought, he was.

After getting into the armory, they all grabbed three more kits and started to attach the belts around their torso. It was a... Weird sight. It also _felt_ weird.

"Alright, everyone. Ask HoKee, to get you a trajectory and burn plan." Said the female Shadow after she inserted the chip into her helmets side and visibly shivering for a second as the link was established.

The Titan AI took a minute but eventually gave everyone a set of instructions on when to engage their jump-kits, and where to land. Then the team of bigger than usual Pilots dragged themselves back into the ruined hangar, where Josh spoke up, as if he was about to make a grand speech.

"Well, the only way is out." Was all he had to say though, then walked to the edge of the platform and walked off. Soon the other followed suit. Sheppard remained last. His newfound pals were really eager when they jumped off one by one. They probably had more faith in his plan than he did. Because it _was_ his plan. If those people died because they fell to their deaths... He pushed that thought away, reasoning that they would have died anyway. This way at least they have a chance.

He started running. When he reached the end of the floor he leaped. The ships contained gravity had him falling paralell to the surface of the planet for a couple seconds, but when his inertia took him out of it he changed directions toward the ground. His HUD marked the Shadows, who were a couple hundred meters in front of him by now, and had their limbs spread out to slow their fall. Sheppard dived next to them and when they all were together he started speaking.

"Guys, we have different sets so we weigh different. We'll be starting the kits independent from each other so don't be afraid when someone already starts to slow down when you still have a hundred meters to go." When he finished he heard a rather uncertain wave of "Okay"s and "Alright"s.

Truth be told, Sheppard started to worry. He could make out the streets below them by now and even the larger vehicles.

Then he got his first mark. After this point he needed to keep alternating the kits constantly. He started with his original one, releasing a long burst from it that over the course of a couple hundred meters tried to push him back into the sky.

Then switch to another and another long burst over only a hundred meters this time.

Then another switch, this time only going for about fifty meters.

The ground was dangerously close. He could see the people who were most likely looking at them by now.

The next burn was more prolonged, but didn't hold him as strong as his comfort would have requested it.

The marked landing area was now in front of them. Very close. Like a hundred meters.

The last burn was terrifying. It pushed Sheppard hard over the last hundred meters. During this time the other kits joined in as well with what little power they managed to recharge in the short amount of time since they were fired. John prepared for the hardest landing he had yet, and closed his eyes.

Crash.

Sheppard felt the light gravity of the planet pull against him. He was lying on his back, the jump-kits making it rather uncomfortable. Still, he felt like he could lie there for hours. He was finally snapped out of it, when one of the Shadows pulled him up, and patted him on the back.

"We're alive. Now get up. We're far into enemy territory, and we need to get back to a friendly unit to report.

* * *

"After a couple hours of sneaking through one of the metropolis' we reached another infiltrating squad and managed to ask for extraction. After that I hadn't seen any of the Shadows again. Well, until now." John finished the last part of the story.

"How did they treat you knowing about the Shadows?" Ashley asked.

"That's a funny story. Because I didn't tell anyone. The report I wrote said I got there in an escape pod after our own ship was shot down." Sheppard said, then added quickly. "Didn't want to get dragged into the whole thing about being dragged into another spec ops branch to keep me quiet. Not like it mattered. We won the war like days after the Sol battles ended anyway."

"You know that comes off a 'bit' humble, right?" Ashley asked with a questioning look.

"Yeah, well that's me, Williams." Sheppard answered, then after a pause continued. "Or maybe I just don't want to be in command." He said, then laid down on his bed.

 _Or maybe you have something to hide._ Ashley thought, but let it go, when she got the message and quickly said bye. At this point both of them had more than enough time to be well-rested until they arrive. Still she walked into her cabin wondering just how much more Sheppard was keeping from her. From everyone.

Just how much did he do?

* * *

Sheppard was woken by his comm unit chirping. He sat up and accepted the call from Josh.

"Hey, Sheppard we're arriving in twenty. Get presentable. The admiral will surely be angry that you brought Lieutenant Williams."

John stood up, pulled on his fatigues, then one by one took on his armors pieces. Lastly, after attaching the jump-kit to his back, he grabbed his helmet and hang it on his side.

When he reached the airlock area Sheppard saw that Ashley was already there along with Jacob.

"Where's Josh?" He asked. Jacob turned to him, his helmet in his hands.

"He's just dropping us off. He'll get the ship back to the Clarity of Vision." The name took John by surprise, but Ashley looked genuinely shocked. She stood there, mouth open, then managed to ask.

"But it was destroyed at Proxima Centauri. How?" She did not understand. Sheppards eyes widened, then he reattained his relaxed look.

"It was drawn back last minute from the engagement. Even back then, command wanted the secret composition expedition fleets so they started gathering ships." Jacob explained. He wanted to continue explaining, how the top-secret project turned into a civilization-wide event when it launched. That however was prevented by the airlock in front of them opening. When the hissing sound ended they were seeing a large open area behind the open doors. A hundred meters in width and easily double of that in length. Elevators were everywhere and always being used. People were walking all around the place, carrying datapads in their hands and other small devices. From the ceiling of the room, an absurd amount of Titan Chassis' were hanging. Then a red haired woman in the standard gray-ish blue navy uniform stepped in front of them and greeted them with a salute.

"Morning Pilots. The Admiral is waiting. Please follow me." She paused for a moment, looked around the Titan bay, filled with life. "Excuse us for the commotion, but we're in a bit of an unusual situation her." Sheppard just looked at her and nodded reassuringly.

"Don't worry ma'am we've been notified of the circumstances." The woman waved them to come, looking relieved that she doesn't have to explain. They started walking toward one of the lifts in the closest wall. The ride up was quiet and seemed long. The only thing they heard was the occasional chatter when they passed a floor and the constant humming of the engines, which meant the ship was moving somewhere.

When they arrived and the four of them stepped out of the elevator, they were looking at the senior officers' rooms. A long hallway with doors on both sides. The doors had names and ranks on them. The three Pilots were led forward by their guide toward the end of the corridor. As they walked, Sheppard eyed the doors and the names on them curiously, sometimes raising a brow or frowning. At the end of the long hallway was a larger door with more blue than the others. It also had the name on it in larger, golden letters: 'Fleet Admiral S. Hackett'. Ashley was surprised when John paled at the name and his eyes widened. Then the door opened and Sheppard managed to regain some of his composure. When they walked in, they saw a large room with a couple Quantum entanglement communicators on the right and a door on the left, which probably led to a bedroom. On the wall in the back there was a large screen, which at the moment only showed the Systems Alliance Navy logo. In the middle of the room was a large, wide table with screens. Behind said table sat a gray haired man with similarly gray eyes. He was intently looking at Sheppard. Ashley was very confused at this point. It was Sheppard who spoke first.

"Sir, we're here as you requested." He said, standing straighter than a skyscraper.

"No, I requested you. Not your companion. Care to explain?" The Admiral asked, clearly sounding bothered.

"This is Lieutenant Ashley Williams. An Acolyte Pilot, who I think has potential beyond most." John turned to Ashley. "Williams, this is Admiral Hackett. An... old acquaintance." Here he paused and looked back to the admiral. "Whom I though to be retired."

"When the leaders of the civilization you live in ask you to do something it's usually wise not to turn them down." Hackett sighed and massaged his temple with one hand. "And it was rather quiet until now"

John looked at the older human in front of him. He did definitely look old. His formerly blue eyes now had that gray tint to them. Like the hair on the mans head. He looked like the shadow of the leader he was before. John knew that wasn't the case however. By all rights, the man who sat behind the wide desk was - no - _is_ a strategical genius. Hackett was known by many names to the older Pilots. All related to his achievements back in the Militia days. And the man knew many Pilots by name as well. Sheppard however was a special case. And John was perfectly aware of that. The commander was shaken from his thoughts, when Ashley looked at him. He turned to Hackett and took on a serious expression.

"So, admiral. What are we here for? I mean, exactly."

"Officially you are here to help us with the fold artifact we found." When the man spoke, his voice radiated confidence. "But the truth is, we already figured it out pretty much. You're here to help us with our expected guests." When he finished, the room got a couple degrees colder. Then, suddenly Sheppard started forcing a maniacal laugh.

"Ha haha hahaha. You want an Adept Pilot with the most generic portfolio imaginable to help you in first contact. I'm sorry, but that's just ridiculous." Whereas the room got colder a moment ago, it seemed to freeze now. The people inside didn't know what to make of the words. On one hand, the way Sheppard put it, it did seem ridiculous for him to be here. On the other, the way he just disrespected the admiral was something none of them expected. Hackett although didn't seem fazed in the slightest by the disrespect shown. He put on a smug smile and answered.

"Well, it's not exactly Sheppard I need, I..."

"NOO!" Sheppard interrupted, when he saw where this was going. "You want to throw that at me, then do it, but do it in private."

"Then everyone else, please leave for a moment, while I talk some sense into our friend." The admirals assistant, the fleets security guard, and the Acolyte Pilot all looked in shock. "I'll have to talk about a couple things with Jonathan." The people the admiral addressed walked out and the assistant closed the door behind her. At this point Sheppard was looking at the older man with fury in his eyes.

"Jonathan is dead." And to be honest, that was the truth, for all intents and purposes. John, however knew that this was going to be a long and unpleasant talk.

* * *

Ashley was taken by the woman, whom she assumed to be the admirals assistant to a small dining room along with Jacob. They sat in quiet for a long time. In the end, she gathered her strength, and decided to start a conversation.

"So, we may be working together if things go well. Can you tell me about yourself?"

"You know, that's a very straight question." The man bent his head back slightly. "And to be honest, it didn't seem like your commander got along with the admiral well.

"Yeah." But why? And Jonathan? Did the admiral miss the name of Sheppard, or was it to spite him? So many question, no answers. She herded her thoughts back to the topic through a lot of willpower, and looked back at the Pilot who sat across the table. "But I mean, who are you? Were you with the Shadows like Joshua?"

"Hah. I wasn't. Wish I was, though." His eyes were distant, and his voice weak by the last sentence. Then he forced a smile and continued. "But that's what I'd have to tell you anyways. Not like you got any smarter." He chuckled when he finished and Ashleys lips curled upward in a small smile.

"So, what were things like with the fleet before... Well, all this?" She asked another question, something a lot less personal this time.

"It was rather peaceful. The most we had to do was go down to planets and protect the biologists from wildlife." Jacob smirked then added "Actually, there is a really funny story. I don't think it's classified, so why not? It was four months ago, when we found a system with two habitable planets. One was easy to catalogue, but the other was a pain."

"Why? What was there?" Ashley asked, leaning forward in her chair.

"At first, it didn't seem like much. Just your usual arboreal continents. But when the science people went down they found huge tunnels in the ground. Like three meters in diameter. So we sent down a team..."

* * *

To be honest, Sheppard didn't expect Ashley to be laughing with Jacob when he got back from his talk with Hackett. All things considered, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. The old man was still way smarter than he let on, and it showed. This time mostly by pushing Sheppard into a metaphorical corner. John looked around the otherwise empty room and then softly coughed.

"Commander, back so soon?" Jacob asked, genuinely surprised at the older Pilots sudden appearance.

"Things went better than I thought. Still bad, but..." He drifted off.

"So, what did you get us into? And what was that between you and the Admiral?" Ashley asked, clearly perplexed by these recent events.

"We'll be a part of the first contact committee and before that we'll help find the source of the power readings that come from the planet. As for the other question, it's none of your business." The commander said very bluntly.

"What readings?" Jacob asked, surprised. John walked closer to the two of them, when he saw other people in the room as well. None were listening. Yet.

"After the dust from the initial shock of the artifact settled down, one of the survey ships found a non-locatable source of energy. And it seems an awful lot like a weak scrambling field to hide something. The admiral told me to pick a team." Sheppard finished, then pulled out a tablet and started looking through a list.

"Have any idea who you'll take?" Ashley asked, unable to mask the hopefulness in her voice.

"Already gave the list to Hackett." Sheppard said, like it was an inconsequential thing.

"Well, who goes?" It was Jacob who asked this time.

"Well, the amount of people I know in the fleet is actually limited to you two plus Josh." Sheppard had to admit that keeping himself out of the loop had its disadvantages. "And we'll get two master Pilots from the fleet reserves." He finished. Six man. The traditional fireteam. Although, larger battles including hundreds of Pilots weren't rare nowadays, if both sides had the men for it. In fact, such large scale combat was preferred by the Alliance command. More forces destroyed in a single battle, thus less fighting overall.

At the table, one could observe two very different reactions to this information. On one hand, you had Jacob, who was just looking at the commander with a face of indifference. To be honest, he never cared about these missions. Even now, after the artifact, he didn't think their missions would get that much harder. Ashley, on the other hand was very excited.

"At the moment we think it's a pirate hideout. Lack of activity suggest it's either abandoned, or they got scared and hid. For the purpose of safety, we'll assume it's the latter." Sheppard stopped. "I hope you paid attention, that was the briefing. Get ready and be in hangar... twenty, in ninety minutes." With that, he walked out the room.

* * *

"Alright, touchdown in OS,LH,NL,FE,FCP Area in two minutes." Sheppard gave the protocol warnings before landing. A series of abbreviations, to give a basic understanding of the operation area. The first part means the area is only scanned from orbit ( **O** rbit **S** canned), the second means **L** ikely **H** ostile, the third means area of operation is **N** ot **L** imited, and the fourth means **F** ree **E** ngagement. The system was very old, from the days of the first interplanetary conflict, getting constantly updated and modernized. The fifth part is something that existed as far back, as the first Titan wars, where the military truly went into outer space for the first time, where the possibility of meeting aliens started concerning the Core military's High Command ( **F** irst **C** ontact **P** ossible)

In the back of the Crow transport, the Pilots grabbed their helmets, and put them on. Sheppard was tired of the long military phrases, and at this point he sometimes confused others with still using the older codes. Although, now he cared enough to not mess it up, as he had two people on-board that he wanted to impress. Simply to get Hackett off his back, but still. He was the first to place his helmet on his head, and his HUD booted up instantly. He looked at the Pilots he was given, then started checking his equipment. One of the Master Pilots was a short man with no hair, called Lorne, and the other was a Simulacrum called Hal, with extra plating at the joints, meaning he preferred a more agile approach to things. That's hard to adapt into a team, but very useful. Anyway, Sheppard had to attach the G2 to his back, and prepared for a small drop. Defined for Pilots, this meant 50 meters max. The ramp of the dropship opened up. Sheppard walked over to the edge and waited for the signal. When it came, in the form of a simple beep in his helmet, he quickly crouched down, and jumped out. Being a Gen 2 Pilot, with a heavily modified body gave him some advantages. Like being able to jump unthinkable distances. If he really put himself into it, he could even leap fifty feet. After a flip in the air, he positioned himself vertically and let the jump-kit slow him down before he hit the ground. As he impacted the soft dirt he immediately took his weapon into hand and waited while the others landed. When Jacob landed, being the last one to jump, they started running for the nearby hills.

* * *

"Sheppard we've been going around these rocks for hours now." Ashley added another comment at their -so far- futile search.

"You know full well that we still have a square kilometer to check?" Sheppard asked over a private channel. At this point they separated to cover ground more quickly. Three groups of two, a traditional wingman form. Jacob and Josh took the two Piltos from the fleet, And John took Ashley.

"Well Sheppard, I say..." Ashley was cut off, as their comm buzzed to life and Lorne, the human Pilot started speaking.

"Commander, we found a... door."

"Alright, we're going." Sheppard said, then motioned for Ashley to go. He himself holstered the Alternator, and prepared for a run.

Then, he shot out. Starting from a run, then he leaped into the air, touching the vertical rock formation next to them. He put his hand along it and with a thought his jets kicked in. Small constant thrust keeping him on the wall as he ran along it. When the jump-kit couldn't keep the steady thrust going, he leaped off toward the forest next to the rocks. He touched on a tree with his feet and kicked himself away, towards the next, and so on. Ashley had trouble keeping up, but didn't get left behind.

As Sheppard leaped off a tree into the clearing where Lorne was he immediately noticed the hole in the rocky hill, covered by a gray piece of textil. Jacob was walking around the place, waving a scanner in the air.

"Well, commander, this is the door." Lorne said, as he pulled the fabric aside, revealing a barricade made from wood and white crates. "We thought we should wait for you."

"Not like I know more than you, but sure thanks for waiting." Just as John said that, Josh and Hal jumped into the clearing, the latter ending the landing in a roll.

"We came in time?" The simulated voice of the simulacrum asked.

"Yeah. We blow in, and slow infiltrate the cave." John started pulling out a satchel, and was about to arm it, when Jacob interrupted.

"Commander, this could be first contact. I advise we don't blow up their hideout."

"Alright that is reasonable. If anyone has any idea how we get in? And we don't touch the barricade directly. I bet it's booby-trapped."

"Well, we could pull out the bottom crates with grapples." Came the answer to the question by Hal.

"That will be the least graceful thing, I've ever seen done with a grapple, and I've seen some shit." Sheppard stated amused. "But the idea has merit. Get your grapples ready. Shit looks heavy, so we pull together."

As he said that, the six Pilots lined up and shot heir grapples into the bottom crates of the barricade. John, Hal and Josh had grapples on both arms, thus launched both. Then they started pulling. Not a second later the cave entrance blew up. The team scattered behind two hard covers that John and Lorne threw out quickly, then waited. After nothing happened, and the smoke settled down, the entrance was still there. Thankfully the rocks were structurally strong to begin with and didn't collapse.

"So, we are blowing in anyway." Jacob noted, which got a chuckle from everyone. The next few seconds were filled with clicks and clangs of weapons being cocked and checked, as the team drew their guns. Sheppard knew full well that a long rifle like the G2 would only be detrimental in such close quarters so he opted for his sidearm, an Alternator. He took point and prompted his suit to start echo-locating.

The team wandered down a long hallway, constantly expecting to step into traps. Thankfully that wasn't the case. Whoever lives or lived here wasn't prepared for an intrusion beyond the booby-trapped entrance. Or the traps were deeper. The walls got more and more damp as they went further. Sheppard was starting to get annoyed, but then they saw a door behind a turn. It was definitely an environmentally sealed door.

"So we knock?" Came the shy voice of Ashley. Sheppard couldn't help but grin.

"Well, why not? They already know we're here." Sheppard answered. The others chuckled until they realized their appointed CO was serious. They all answered to this with raising their weapons and pointing them at the door. Sheppard kept the Alternator up with one hand, but reached for a one way cover with the other. He stepped to the door and knocked with the Alternators handle three times.

A couple seconds went by; The door hissed; Sheppard primed the one-way cover and prepared it to be thrown

The door opened. Behind it stood a sleek figure with white clothing and a small, helmet. Now, the helmets visor made it impossible to see who was behind it but that didn't keep the Pilots occupied. What did however, was the short metal object in the figures right hand. It was raising.

When it reached their level, the objects purpose became clear. After all, people know, when they are looking down the barrel of a weapon.

* * *

 **So yeah, the ME species will be using even ME human weapons as well. In this case, they were created by the Turians and not by the humans.**

 **Y'all know how summer goes. Vacations here and there, chilling, just overall relaxing. Wasn't in the mood to write, and when i was, I rather wrote for my own thing, which I'll publish sometime in the future.**

 **Also, this episode was supposed to be shorter. It didn't want to be. And I'm not happy with how it turned out. I feel like the pacing is erratic and the dialogue is unrealistic. If it really becomes that much of a problem I'll rewrite it later when I have more experience. Or not. I don't know yet.**

 **And sorry for the cliffhanger btw.**


End file.
